Quarantine Act: Dino Melaye Heads To Court, Warns Against Consequences

“It will now be the Minister who has powers to amend the Act. So it is ridiculous that the National Assembly will be considering a Bill that will take away their powers to amend an Act or a Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria".... Senator Melaye 

Senator Dino Melaye, who represented representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the 8th Assembly, has filed a court action against the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the entire House and others, over the move by the House to repeal the Quarantine Act and enact the Control of Infectious Disease Bill.

Dino Melaye, who is known for calling out government on issues of national importance, made this known via his official Twitter handle, @dino_melaye, on Monday.

In his tweet, Melaye described the Bill as a satanic one aimed at enslaving Nigerians in this modern era and called on Nigerians to stop the bill by all means, legally and morally.

He revealed that he has already filed a court action with Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS,463/2020 against the Clerk of the National Assembly, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Inspector General of Police, in order to stop further deliberation on the Bill which he described as wicked.

The Kogi born former federal lawmaker stated that the reason why Nigerians must stop the Bill by all means, legally and morally, is because it gives so much powers to the Minister of Health and the NCDC Director-General to operate at the detriment of the Nigerian Customs and judiciary.

“If you look at Section 75 of that Bill, it talks about the amendment of schedule and it reads “the minister may from time to time by notification in the gazette amend any of the schedules to this act”, meaning the powers of the legislators to amend an act have been taken away by this provision.

“It will now be the Minister who has powers to amend the Act. So it is ridiculous that the National Assembly will be considering a Bill that will take away their powers to amend an Act or a Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria", Senator Melaye stated.

“If you also see Section 76 of the same Bill, which read: “the Minister may subject to such conditions and for such period to period as he deems fit, exempt any persons, premises, vessel, vehicles, articles or any class of persons from any of the provisions of this act”.

Dino pointed out that it means the Minister will become very powerful; a vessel can come into Nigeria and he can exempt it, exempt an article, people, individuals and companies from being either quarantined or investigated.

“In fact, he will take over the responsibility of the Nigerian Customs and completely take over the responsibility of the judiciary. It means without warrant the Minister or Director-General can detain anybody for 14 days and above. This is not a law we should entertain”, he stressed.